Elmer’s Cafe

Elmer’s Café let me down once. And I’ll never forgive it.
It was the great breakfast hike of 2009. There was an aftershow party for a performance of Macbeth I’d been involved in, and we had adjourned to a cast member’s house after the post-​post-​show celebrations ended (READ: after the restaurant owner had kicked us out at 3am). The cast member’s house was at the top of Allensbank Road. We had our fun and, she eventually persuaded the last four of us to get the Hell out at almost 9am.
«I KNOW!» I said, with all the energy of the alcoholic, «Let’s go to Elmer’s! For breakfast!» Somehow I managed to not fall in the road and get run over by a passing heavy load vehicle.
9am, Sunday morning. Elmer was asleep and he wasn’t getting out of bed for anything at such an obscene time in the AM. Instead, we were left to wander dejectedly down to AJs on City Road. I say dejectedly. It actually went like this:
«Elmer’s is closed. Let’s go to bed.» said Ana, my friend.
«I KNOW!» I said, completely undeflated, and still managing to not fall in the road, «LET’S GO TO AJ’s!»
AJ’s was closed. I don’t know how I survived the walk home. I seem to remember hands around my throat…
When Elmer’s doesn’t betray you, however, the food is eminently serviceable for the post-​drink refuel.

I’m not a big fan of café’s on the Crwys rd the outdoor seating is always to close to passers by, you feel to exposed and the interior of this café has no charm.
The general menu is aimed at breakfast and lunch. The main problem is I felt like I should eat up and move on.
I prefer the cafes around the Salisbury road area.

I suppose that there is nothing wrong with Elmer’s (also known, confusingly, as the Take A Break Café — although I’m fairly sure it says Elmer’s above the door) but it just doesn’t live up to the standards set for the cafes on Crwys Road. Why would you choose to stop in here when you could go a little further up the hill and find yourself in Mad Hatters? Or Café Calcio? Or Café Atma, if you’re looking for something a little more hippy. The service here is good, that’s true, and there is a 10% discount for students. However, there was not one single person in there under the age of 60 when I went in. The discount, then, is definitely just an attempt to get a younger market. The food is alright — good but not as enjoyable as the other cafes… All in all, there’s nothing wrong here but I’d send you up the hill if I liked you at all.